U.S.

Miami Relatives May Sue U.S.

June 8, 2001 / 7:46 PM EDT / AP

A federal judge has ruled that Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives can sue the U.S. government for alleged use of excessive force by federal agents during the raid to seize the Cuban boy.

The boy was found in November 1999 by fishermen after the boat on which he and his mother attempted to immigrate to the United States capsized. He was temporarily placed with relatives in Miami, who then launched a battle to keep him in the United States.

Federal agents seized the boy on April 22, 2000, and returned him to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

U.S. District Judge Shelby Highsmith rejected a request from the government to throw out the lawsuit, saying that the family has "alleged sufficient facts to support such a claim."

No trial date has been set.

Lazaro Gonzalez, his wife, Angela Gonzalez, and daughter Marisleysis Gonzalez contend that government officials violated their constitutional rights when they ordered the raid to seize the boy, then 6.

The Gonzalezes are seeking unspecified damages.

Elian and his father returned to Cuba last June after the Gonzalezes exhausted all legal efforts to keep the boy in the United States.

The judge cited a Chicago appellate ruling in a case in which a city police officer with a search warrant allegedly broke down the front door of a suspect's home without warning and pointed a gun at his head.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the government has not decided whether to appeal Highsmith's ruling.

In the ruling, filed Tuesday, the judge said then-Attorney General Janet Reno and immigration chief Doris Meissner did not conspire to violate the Gonzalezes' constitutional rights by ordering the raid.

The judge also found that the government's arrest and search warrants used to enter the Gonzalez family's Little Havana home were legal.

However, "that is not a license for the government to exercise excessive force in executing that warrant," the family's attorney, Frank Quintero, said Thursday. "I think it's a very good ruling for us."